One of the key players in the ownership group hoping to keep the Kings in Sacramento, Ron Burkle, is no longer in the picture due to a conflict of interest. Mayor Kevin Johnson insists that this is not a setback. Per the SacBee: “Ten days before the NBA decides whether the Kings stay in Sacramento, a key investor in the effort has been forced into a secondary role. Beverly Hills billionaire Ron Burkle, a driving force for the past two years in trying to keep the Kings from leaving town, will not invest in the team or the proposed Downtown Plaza arena, Mayor Kevin Johnson announced Monday afternoon. Facing questions over a conflict of interest, Burkle instead will focus on redeveloping other portions of Downtown Plaza. ‘He’s so committed to Sacramento,’ the mayor said, adding that he spoke with Burkle on Monday. ‘There’s a host of ancillary development opportunities that Ron will participate in.’ Burkle was going to take the lead in developing the proposed $448 million arena and would have held a small ownership stake in the team. Sacramento officials had said his presence was a huge asset in part because he successfully developed a new arena three years ago for his hockey team, the Pittsburgh Penguins. Johnson insisted that Burkle’s new role would not deflate the effort to keep the Kings from going to Seattle, and said other investors would pick up the financial slack. He did not give specifics. ‘I don’t look at this as a slow-up or a hiccup,’ he said. ‘We won’t miss a beat.’ He said that NBA team owners, who met with the Sacramento investors last week, were comfortable with the shifting arrangement. With Burkle taking a back seat, software magnate Vivek Ranadive and East Bay health-club financier Mark Mastrov ‘are going to be the lead investors’ on the team and arena, the mayor said.”

Investors and the city of Sacramento continue to scrap and pull out all of the stops in an effort to retain the Kings. A fourth “whale” equity investor was unveiled. Per News10: “Vivek Ranadive, the third ‘whale’ equity investor to join Ron Burkle and Mark Mastrov in the effort to keep the Kings in Sacramento, spoke publicly for the first time since the city of Sacramento announced they had a reached a deal to build an arena at the Downtown Plaza site. ‘Every now and then you have an opportunity that’s bigger than yourself,’ Ranadive said. ‘And the opportunity to keep the Kings in Sacramento, when the mayor called and asked me about it, I couldn’t possibly say no.’ Ranadive’s addition to the Burkle-Mastrov team came as surprise last Thursday while the group was in negotiations with the city. Then Monday night, Ranadive had another surprise, the announcement of a fourth ‘whale’ equity investor: the Jacobs family of San Diego who helped start Qualcomm. ‘We’ve also assembled a dream team of investors and owners. One of the lessons I learned was to surround myself with people a lot smarter than me, and so my partners are all smarter than me,’ said Ranadive. ‘So we now have people from all economic centers of the state, from San Diego, L.A. and from the Bay Area, all coming together to keep the Kings in Sacramento.’ The team of Ranadive-Mastrov-Burkle-Jacobs along with the city of Sacramento will now have to convince the NBA Board of Governors their deal to keep the Kings in Sacramento is stronger than Steve Ballmer and Chris Hansen’s bid to move the team to Seattle. Both groups will make their formal pitches to the NBA on April 3, with the official vote on April 18 or 19 in New York. […] One possible advantage the Ranadive-led group may have over the Hansen-Ballmer bid is the ability to help the Sacramento Kings and the NBA grow globally. Two years ago, Ranadive made history when he brought Bollywood Night to the Golden State Warriors where he is currently a minority owner, and broadcast the first live NBA game in his native India.”

The city of Sacramento, in its ongoing attempts to retain the Kings, announced a new arena deal over the weekend. Mayor Kevin Johnson and the business partners behind the deal hope this will help keep the team from moving to Seattle. Per the Sac Bee: “Sacramento officials announced Saturday they have reached a deal for the largest redevelopment project in city history – a $447.7 million arena at the Downtown Plaza, with up to 1.5 million square feet of offices, housing, stores and a high-rise hotel. The public-private partnership agreement, announced in nine rapid-fire tweets by Mayor Kevin Johnson, puts the city on track to make a last-minute pitch to NBA officials in New York in two weeks to keep the Sacramento Kings from leaving town for Seattle. It would require the city to commit $258 million in value, or 58 percent of the arena cost. Of that, $212 million would come from selling bonds backed by future revenues from city downtown parking garages. The city’s contribution is the same as it was in last year’s aborted project to build an arena at the downtown railyard. The city also agreed to give the private development group the city’s empty 100-acre plot next to Sleep Train Arena in North Natomas, as well as six other city properties, five of them adjacent to or near the downtown arena site. In total, the city properties have been valued at $38 million, according to city officials. The agreement calls for the private development team to contribute $190 million to building the arena. That team is made of up investment billionaire Ron Burkle, 24 Hour Fitness founder Mark Mastrov and Vivek Ranadive, a Silicon Valley entrepreneur. The city would own the arena; the private group would operate it and be responsible for its ongoing upkeep. The city would be guaranteed a minimum of $1 million in arena revenues annually, with bump-ups if arena revenues hit certain levels. […] The complex deal, which sets a September 2016 date for opening the new arena, also involves a 5 percent surcharge on tickets for two years at Sleep Train Arena, and continuing for the 35-year term of the lease at the new arena. […] The news of the deal broke just after 3 p.m. when the mayor hit the Twittersphere with a series of jubilant tweets, noting that the deal avoids new taxes, protects the city on an existing $70 million loan to the Kings and involves ‘no net impact on the general fund.'”

With high-ranking NBA executives monitoring events closely from their suburban New York homes – one suspects, almost as closely as folks in Seattle – the mayor outlined the most current state of the Kings’ affairs as follows: Mark Mastrov, the founder of 24 Hour Fitness, is the point man for an ownership group that will submit a proposal countering the $341 million offer the Maloofs have accepted from Seattle-based moguls Chris Hansen and Steve Ballmer; Ron Burkle, the supermarket tycoon, will lead efforts to build an arena; the plans include replacing the Downtown Plaza with a sports and entertainment complex. There were few specifics but several other interesting offerings of note. Johnson said the list of local investors committing at least $1 million includes former Kings star Mitch Richmond. He revealed that WNBA officials have been approached about bringing back the Monarchs. Later, he seemed to leave an opening for inclusion of John Kehriotis and the Kings’ other limited partners. “Who are we?” the mayor asked the pro-Kings, pro-downtown crowd. “What defines us as a city?”

Mastrov and the local investors’ bid is “slightly lower,” than the $341 million that the Chris Hansen-Steve Ballmer group has agreed to pay for the available 65 percent of the Kings, a high-level source involved in the talks said. “They have a shot,” the source said. “It’s still a long shot, but the bid will be close enough to cause real debate.”

Despite all of the rhetoric, the Kings’ future remains very hazy. The Maloofs are expected to “entertain” the counter-offer from the folks in Sacramento, but there’s no telling if that can or will change anything. They seem fairly hellbent on getting out of Sac-Town.

It won’t be an easy exit, if Kevin Johnson and the investors he speaks for are to be believed: “This situation before us is a defining moment,” Johnson said. “It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that will shape who are we. So with all due respect to Seattle, and I absolutely do wish them well. And I do hope they get a team someday. But let me perfectly clearly. Let me be perfectly, crystal clear. It is NOT going to be this team.”